Vedanta Aluminium Ltd, the Vedata Resources company that is setting up a 5 lakh tonne aluminium smelter with an investment of Rs 8400 crore at Jharsuguda in Orissa, is all set to commission the plant by the end of this fiscal.
“The first phase of 2.5 lakh tonne facilities will be ready by February 2008. We are working to commence production by March 2008,” the company vice-president (commercial & project), A K Samal told FE.
The 675mw captive plant (CPP) of the smelter is expected to go for generation in the new year.
Vedanta is also putting up a 2400mw coal-fired independent project with an investment of Rs 8000 crore at Brundamal near the smelter site at Bhurkhamunda in Jharsuguda district.
Samal said that Vedanta’s smelter plant will have several land marks. According to him, the industrial shed covering the potline would be the longest in the country. The present project site, with over 40,000 people working, is the second largest after Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) Jamnagar site. The 270-meter high CPP chimney is the highest in the state, he added.
Vedanta Aluminium has already commenced trial production for its 1m tonne alumina plant at Lanjigarh in Orissa’s Kalahandi district. Now with the Supreme Court judgment coming in favour of the mining project, the company is likely to go for commercial production of alumina in the next six months.
“There would be no problem in the new arrangement of sourcing bauxite from the joint venture company to be formed between Orissa Mining Corp (OMC) and group company, Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd (SIIL), for mining in Niyamgiri”, said P K Panda, vice-president (mines).